GOP: Golly, we’re raising a lot of money after ObamaCare ruling

posted at 12:41 pm on July 2, 2012 by Ed Morrissey

Golly isn’t exactly the word in the quote that BuzzFeed uses to describe the volume of Republican fundraising in the wake of the Supreme Court ruling on ObamaCare. Instead, GOP consultant Wesley Donohue summons up a colorful metaphor that’s obviously a euphemism foranother colorful metaphor:

While both the Romney and Obama campaign boasted that the decision had juiced their small contributions, the spillover to candidates for the Senate and House appears, by the early anecdotal evidence, to have been more pronounced for Republicans. Many Democrats, after all, continue to avoid talking about the unpopular legislation, while Republican candidates have now sharpened their mission: To repeal ObamaCare.

South Carolina-based Republican consultant Wesley Donehue said it was the best week of fundraising for his clients since Congressman Joe Wilson shouted “You Lie,” at President Barack Obama in 2009.

“We raised a crap ton of cash for clients at all levels of government, from State Senate to U.S. Senate,” he said.

The Senate races are a key to the issue of overturning ObamaCare. Republicans don’t need 60 votes to get rid of most of the bill — and they didn’t before the Supreme Court decision, either. What passed into law with reconciliation can get repealed through the same process. The court’s ruling does, however, make it a lot more politically viable to use reconciliation and repeal with only 51 votes. The GOP needs to actually win enough seats to get to 51, a prospect that dimmed slightly when Olympia Snowe unexpectedly announced her retirement.

This fundraising boost, especially down-ticket, shows that the Tea Party activists have begun to re-engage. Many of them expressed disappointment over the nomination of Mitt Romney, and one of the great questions of this cycle was whether they would engage at all. Had the court overturned ObamaCare, the issue that galvanized the Tea Party in 2009 and 2010, they might have felt comfortable sitting out the 2012 election, at least in terms of fundraising and organization. That’s no longer the case. The only path to repeal now is by winning the Senate and the White House, and they appear to have realized it.

Leaked details of a plaintive phone call from President Obama to some of his biggest donors this weekend offered a rare and revealing look into the typically private rituals of big-dollar campaign fundraising.

The pitch also affirmed the campaign’s anxiety about lagging behind in the money race.

This is beginning to look like the summer of 2010 all over again, and even the White House can’t help but notice it. I’m sure a few colorful metaphors are being put to use in the offices of Team Obama these days, too, but probably in a much different context.

On the subject of “colorful metaphors,” there is only one reference this Trek fan can make. Since this contains metaphors even more colorful than above, observe the PG-13 content warning, please: